Germany to press for entry-exit registry in Schengen area

BERLIN – Germany will push for speedy introduction of an entry-exit registry for third-country travelers into the Schengen area at Thursday’s emergency meeting of the EU interior and justice ministers following ISIL attacks in the Belgian capital.

“At the external borders of the Schengen area, there are too many gaps,” Thomas de Maizière said in an interview with national broadcaster ARD. “We need an entry and exit registry for the Schengen area.”

Although EU member states issue visas for citizens of third countries entering Schengen, there is no centralised database that would register those crossing in and out all 26 Schengen member states.

EU leaders have been discussing a tracking mechanism on Schengen’s borders since 2008, when the European Commission first issued a proposal for it. Concerns over personal data protection rights have prevailed and postponed any decision on moving ahead with it.

A registration office could only be established if the Commission proved that a database was necessary to achieve a legitimate goal. As a huge advocate of the personal data protection right, Germany has been particularly critical of collecting and storing data at Schengen borders.

In 2013, an attempt by de Maizière’s predecessor, Hans-Peter Friedrich, to push for it was thwarted by the liberal FDP, the CDU’s then-coalition partner, which held the justice ministry at the time.

With the justice ministry now headed by Heiko Maas, a Social Democrat who has already indicated support for de Maizière’s plan, it appears likely that Germany could now push for the establishment of a Schengen registry at the meeting in Brussels.

An interior ministry spokesperson said during a government press conference on Wednesday that “the interior minister will do everything so that [the introduction of an entry-exit registry] will happen quickly.”

According to de Maizière’s previous suggestion, the registry would link three of the existing databases: the Schengen Information System (SIS,) the European fingerprint database for identifying asylum seekers and irregular border-crossers (Eurodac) and the Schengen Visa Information System (VIS.)

“We want to know who are the people entering the Schengen area, and when they leave it. That is what we are working on currently,” de Maizière told Die Welt newspaper in mid-March.

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Thucydides

In times like this, one learns much that has remained hidden from the public view. Such as that there has never been a central registry for third-country travelers into the Schengen area.

Posted on 3/24/16 | 6:29 PM CET

ten Busch

To say the least: it took me a while to digest that news. How in the world does that go together with Mme Merkels still unchanged refugee policy? What do hundreds of thousands of UNREGISTERED refugees due to a failed german policy and thus now present in Germany tell us in that context, Mr. de Maizière? Have they not come from outside of Schengen? Refugees like those three Syrians in Ulm, who submerged the same pre-Paris night, that Abdeslam parked his car just next to their refugee camp? Has anyone heard of just an rudimental sign, that the german gov. revises its politics seriously in this respect? If not, Mr. de Maizière would you please consider to tackle this beast first and register the refugees before you suspect everybody, who enters and leaves schengen?

Posted on 3/24/16 | 6:50 PM CET

Pexi

Once again… When the final result of her open borders policy is showing his showing his results … Mutti merkel his hidding somewhere … But for her there is no problem she doesn’t have a child and the rest of Europeans can died that will make her happy the sworn she made as young communist to destroy the west will come true

Posted on 3/25/16 | 2:00 AM CET

Francis

A entry/exit registry for thrid country travellers ? Sure … very useful indeed and we may ask why it does not exuist yet ! But most if not all of the “terrorists” we know about are EU citizens … A PNR ? surely very useful under certain privacy conditions … but most of these “terrorists” have travelled by car/train etc within the EU … If I use “brackets” for “terrorists” it is mainly because as stated by the FT, most of them are simply radicalized criminals and one should take appropriate actions against criminals and not free them before their jail sentence is done without proper clearance. In the end, it has more to do about managing your criminals sentenced in jail, than about computerised exchange of information of travellers.